Geeking For Good

In case you missed it in my tweetstream, I went to Social Media Club Sydney last night to see MC Hammer. Hammer is an absolute class act. Charming, articulate, and really well-versed in social media. His talk was very engaging and peppered with anecdotes that demonstrated Hammer is actually a major geek. He truly gets social media and has much to teach celebrities, brands, agencies and nonprofits. Some of the parts talk that resonated with me:

Why would you embrace social media as a brand? … You should never let somebody else tell your story.

I completely agree with Hammer in that brands should be using social media to help control flow of information. That said, in the case of nonprofit organisations (and to some extent, brands), they need to be encouraging other people to tell their stories too – interweaving the stories of an organisation and their supporters can enrich the social media experience for all involved.

Don’t run – engage. The humanising of your product is actually an asset.

Another takeaway that’s perfect for non-profits. Don’t be a faceless organisation – be human, be social – we’re talking about social media after all.

… be disruptive and shake up the world.

While the comment was aimed at entrepreneurs, I think it’s relevant for all – if anyone is to make a difference in the world, you have to be disruptive. Upset the status quo and make things better. In addition, Hammer talked with us about citizen journalism, social media analytics and gadgets. His talk was such a positive experience, and it was great to hear about social media from someone who lives and breathes it, in a very authentic and awesome way. Kudos to Social Media Club Sydney for the great night, and thank you MC Hammer for your time!

This week saw the wider public gain access to Twitter lists, and the posts have been rolling in about how nonprofits can incorporate Lists into their social media strategy:

• Geeking For Good: How non-profits can take advantage of Twitter Lists
• Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech: Twitter Lists for Nonprofits
• John Haydon: Why Twitter lists are huge for your non-profit or small business [video tutorial]
• Wild Apricot Blog: Twitter Lists 101 (the original post is older than a week, however it’s a great resource and comments have continued well into this week)

In other news, Causes on Myspace is shutting down due to lack of activity (HT @rootwork). Entries are open for AshokaTECH’s “Blog your way to Hyderabad” competition, for those interested in an all-expenses-paid way to get to the event. The winner will be the official blogger, and will be expected to tweet, maintain a live blog, and interview attendees. Earlybird registrations are now open for the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference in Atlanta.

Rumour has it that Twitter Lists have now been rolled out to half of all Twitter users. I believe that the Lists functionality will provide non-profits with some great opportunities for outreach and engagement, not to mention enhance the Twitter experience for organisations and their followers.

Below are just a few List building ideas for non-profits:

1. Your organisation’s chapters and campaigns. If your organisation is federated, with multiple state- or city-based chapters, group these together in one list with any campaign-specific accounts. This will help you and your followers keep track of what is happening across all organisation accounts at a glance. No more hunting through the timeline or Twitter search for the latest news!
2. Related international organisations and campaigns. As above, keeping track of what’s happening will keep you and your organisation connected globally.
3. Organisations that are somewhat related to your organisation. If you work for an animal welfare organisation, you could follow organisations relating to animal therapy. Organisations focussed on poverty abroad could follow organisations that deal with issues relating to poverty, like health or microfinance, both abroad and in your own country.
4. Celebrities, politicians and others with a high profile. Whether you know they are supporters of your cause or not, keeping track of high-profile people could help you easily recognise and act on tweets that relate to your cause.
5. Media. As with celebrities, keep track of what journalists and bloggers are tweeting about. You never know when an opportunity to discuss your organisation could pop up.
6. Volunteers. What better way to keep volunteers engaged than to know what’s going on in their life and keep in contact? You may want to keep this list private.
7. Retweeters and people who have contacted you. As above, this can help you keep track of those people who are influenced by your organisation. An added bonus of this is you can work out just how many of your followers are actively engaged with you online. For example, if you have 1000 total followers, and 300 people in this list, you could gauge that your influence is quite high. Nurture these relationships, as these people – your most important Twitter assets – are reacting to and passing on your messages.

   Now, these lists could take some time to set up and maintain, but I see them as an essential part of non-profits’ social media activities.

   What lists will you be setting up? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I attended my first BarCamp on Saturday and was very impressed with the whole experience. A great bunch of thinkers were present, including some who traveled from Sydney, Melbourne and Woollongong. Presentations from the day are in the BarCampCanberra2 group on SlideShare.

Charitwy – Australian Non-Profits and Twitter

View more presentations from Lauren Cochrane.

With over 2000 non-profits orgs on Twitter it’s clear that Twitter is growing in popularity as a way to communicate with supporters. This week’s Mashable article 26 Non-Profits and Charities That Tweet highlighted a few of the non-profits that have had success with Twitter. This however, begs the question: how can non-profits use Twitter successfully? Before starting to tweet, I recommend that you learn to use Twitter by signing up for a personal acount. Take as long as you need to learn the essentials like Twitter etiquette, hashtags, retweeting etc. You’l then be better equipped to launch your non-profit account knowing the lay of the land. Don’t follow hundreds of people straight away – let your following/follower count rise organically. First up, you should follow @nonprofitorgs, any other local or overseas non-profits in the same field. Use a directory like Twellow, Wefollow etc to find other people, even do a Twitter search for your brand name. Without actively trying to find new followers, I was able to gain over 450 followers in 4 weeks for the non-profit I work for. So what should you be tweeting about? Remember that Twitter is a conversation. At the end of the day, you should be a person, not a faceless organisation, on Twitter. Contribute to conversations, answer questions, share news of what your organisation is doing and retweet interesting stories from related non-profits. Services like Twitpic will give other further insight into your organisation, while twtpoll will help you gain further insight from your followers.